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8
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2011
SFF.ORG.AU
INTRODUCTION
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2011
SFF.ORG.AU
9
INTRODUCTION
THE CRC AWARD
The Community Relations Commission For a Multicultural
NSW provides a $5,000 cash prize to the film whose
content best reflects the multicultural experience in
Australia. All Australian films screening in the festival that
meet the criteria are eligible for this award.
The CRC award was established in 1992. Recent winners
include Bad Language by Viron Papadopoulos (2010) and
Mother Fish (aka Missing Water) by Khoa Do (2009).
PETER RASMUSSEN INNOVATION AWARD
The Peter Rasmussen Innovation Award is given each
year to an Australian whose work in film, machinima or
new media embodies a visionary spirit and a relentless
determination to create high-quality works for the
screen. The recipient’s work may be described as fringe
or innovative, pushing boundaries in form or mode of
production, or being outside the usual categories of film
at the festival.
Established in 2009 by a board of trustees made up of
friends and collaborators of the innovative Australian
filmmaker Peter Rasmussen, the $5,000 cash prize is
supported by Screen NSW.
SHOWTIME AUDIENCE AWARDS
The Showtime Audience Awards are the people’s choice
awards and the winners reflect the most popular films at the
festival. After each screening, you are invited to rate the film
you’ve just seen.
Two audience awards are presented, one to the best narrative
feature, and one to the best documentary. The winners are
announced the week after the festival. Don’t forget to vote!
INSIDE FILM AWARDS
The Inside Film Awards celebrate and champion Australian
film and creative talent. Sydney Film Festival is an
IF Awards-accredited film festival. All current Australian
content screening at the festival is eligible for the Inside
Film Awards 2011.
Fill in a ratings sheet at the screenings, or rate films by
logging on to www.ifawards.com
FESTIVAL AWARDS
WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE
Be a part of the fabulous Opening Night of the 58th Sydney Film Festival!
Experience all the excitement and red-carpet glamour of the screening
of SFF’s Opening Night film, Hanna, directed by Joe Wright and starring
Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett, at the magnificent State
Theatre. Then join us for the afterparty at The Establishment to celebrate
the kickoff of the 2011 festival in style.
Tickets are strictly limited for these events, so grab yours today!
OPENING NIGHT (FILM AND PARTY)
$80
OPENING NIGHT (FILM ONLY)
$20
OPENING NIGHT CONCESSION (FILM ONLY)
$17
SUNDAY 19 JUNE
Celebrate the finale of the 58th Sydney Film Festival at our Closing Night.
Join us along with our distinguished guests at the State Theatre as we call it a
wrap. Before the screening of the Closing Night film – Beginners, directed by
Mike Mills and starring Ewan McGregor – the winners of the 2011 Sydney
Film Prize, the 2011 FOXTEL Documentary Prize and the Dendy Awards
for Australian Short Films will be honoured. Bid farewell to another fantastic
festival with a special night.
Tickets are strictly limited for this event, so don’t miss out!
CLOSING NIGHT (FILM ONLY)
$20
CLOSING NIGHT CONCESSION
$17
OPENING NIGHT GALA
CLOSING NIGHT GALA
OPENING NIGHT
CLOSING NIGHT
Twelve features are selected for Official
Competition, SFF’s flagship program, on
the basis that they demonstrate `emotional
power and resonance; are audacious,
cutting-edge, courageous; and go beyond
the usual treatment of the subject matter’.
The jury, consisting of international
and Australian filmmakers and industry
professionals, awards a $60,000 prize,
supported by iShares, for ‘new directions
in film’. The competition features nightly
red-carpet gala screenings and will
culminate in an awards presentation on
Sunday 19 June, 2011.
The Official Competition was established
in 2008 and endorsed by Fédération
Internationale des Associations de
Producteurs de Films (the regulating
organisation for international film
festivals). Past winners of the Sydney
Film Prize were Hunger, directed by Steve
McQueen (2008), Bronson, directed
by Nicolas Winding Refn (2009) and
Heartbeats, directed by Xavier Dolan
(2010). Jury President alumni are Gillian
Armstrong (2008), Rolf de Heer (2009)
and Jan Chapman (2010).
FOXTEL AUSTRALIAN
DOCUMENTARY PRIZE
Up to ten films are selected for the FOXTEL Australian
Documentary Prize, which acknowledges excellence in local
documentary production and is open to factual films of any
length. The jury awards a cash prize of $10,000 which is
presented at SFF’s Closing Night ceremony on Sunday 19
June, 2011.
The FOXTEL Australian Documentary Prize was
established in 2009. The prize winners to date are Contact
by Martin Butler and Bentley Dean, and A Good Man by
Safina Uberoi (2009, co-winners) and The Snowman by
Juliet Lamont (2010).
DENDY AWARDS FOR
AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILMS
The prestigious Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films
and have been sponsored by Dendy Cinemas for 23 years.
The Dendy Awards recognise that short films provide
a measurable development pathway to feature-film
production, and just as importantly, that the short is also
a vibrant creative form unto itself.
Established in 1970, these awards have sparked the careers
of many Australian filmmakers. Recent winners include
The Lost Thing, directed by Shaun Tan and Andrew
Ruhemann, which subsequently won this year’s Academy
Award® for Best Animated Short Film; and Miracle Fish
directed by Luke Doolan, which was nominated for an
Academy Award®.
• The Live Action Short Award, sponsored by
Dendy Cinemas, provides a $5,000 cash prize to
the best Australian short film. Winners are Academy
Award®-eligible.
• The Yoram Gross Animation Award, sponsored by
Yoram and Sandra Gross, provides a $4,000 cash prize
to the best Australian animated short film. Winners
are Academy Award®-eligible.
• The Rouben Mamoulian Award, sponsored by Dendy
Cinemas, and named after the director who first
presented the award in 1974, provides a $5,000 cash
prize to the best Australian short film director.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
AND SYDNEY FILM PRIZE
All of our stunning awards, from the blue beauty
of the Sydney Film Prize to the mesmeric swirl of the
FOXTEL Australian Documentary Prize and
the Dendy Awards, are generously created by
Dinosaur Designs.
Xavier Dolan, director, writer and producer of the 2010 Sydney Film Prize-winning
Heartbeats; SFF 2010 Official Competition Jury President Jan Chapman.
SPONSORED BY:
MIKE MILLS was born in Berkeley and studied at Cooper Union in New York. An
artist, graphic designer and filmmaker, he has directed music videos for Air, Pulp,
Moby and Everything But the Girl. Thumbsucker, his debut feature, won awards
at Sundance and Berlin. Beginners is his second film.
Mike Mill’s Thumbsucker semi-autobiographical and thoroughly beguiling second
feature is as playful and amusing as it is bittersweet. Oliver (SFF 2010 festival guest
Ewan McGregor in charming form) is a graphic illustrator living a cloistered life in
Los Angeles when he meets Anna (Mélanie Laurent), a bubbly and alluring French
actress. In a party scene that mimics the silent slapstick of Buster Keaton (Anna even has
laryngitis), the chemistry between them is immediate. However life is messy for Oliver –
his allergy to commitment compounded by his family history and the tumultuous recent
past. At the tender age of 75, Oliver’s father Hal (in a gratifyingly dandy performance
by Christopher Plummer) came out of the closet, adopted a thoroughly flamboyant new
style, took on a much younger boyfriend and then topped it all by announcing he was
dying of lung cancer. Having fallen for Anna, Oliver finds himself facing two options
–
retreat (his usual MO) or take a lesson from Hal’s aging exuberance and risk it all for
love. Effortlessly cutting between three timeframes and visually inventive throughout,
this deeply romantic comedy will have you leaving the cinema with a spritely spring in
your step – and looking for the subtitles next time you see a Jack Russell! CS•
BEGINNERS
SUN 19 JUN 7.45PM STATE
USA | 104 mins | In English
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Director: Mike Mills | Screenwriter:
Mike Mills | Producer: Leslie
Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de
Pencier, Jay van Hoy, Lars Knudson
| Cast: Ewan McGregor, Christopher
Plummer, Mélanie Laurent |
Distributor: Hopscotch Films
JOE WRIGHT was born in London. His career as a director started in television. His
feature-film debut, Pride & Prejudice and his second film, Atonement, were both
critically-acclaimed box-office hits. Hanna is his third film.
Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) shifts gear with this audacious espionage
thriller that updates The Wizard of Oz via The Bourne Identity, interlacing virtuoso
action sequencing with the storytelling logic and visual aesthetics of fairytales. Fearless,
exacting and beautiful, sixteen-year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) lives in the enchanted
wilds of northern Finland with her father Erik (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA agent who is
training her to be an assassin. She has a single target in view – the wicked, and suitably
witchy, intelligence operative Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett). Setting forth on her
predestined revenge mission, Hanna’s transition into the wider world is plagued not
only by the seriously nasty villains who pursue her and the unexpectedness of the terrain
she encounters (from the Moroccan desert to the metropolis of Berlin) but also by the
limits of her training. While Erik has prepared her as a warrior, he has neglected to equip
her with the skills to navigate the unpredictable topography of human behaviour and
emotion. Nominated for an Academy Award® for her role in Wright’s Atonement, Ronan’s
performance as the tenacious teenage heroine is a revelation, and her sharp thinking and
cool energy are perfectly accentuated by The Chemical Brothers’ breathless score. CS•
HANNA
WED 8 JUN 7.30PM STATE
Germany, UK , USA | 111 mins |
In English, Arabic, German, Spanish,
French, Italian with English subtitles.
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Director: Joe Wright | Screenwriter:
Seth Lochhead, David Farr |
Producer: Marty Adelstein, Leslie
Holleran, Scott Nemes | Cast: Saoirse
Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett |
Distributor: NBC Universal